Are we in our outdoor living era? Take a stroll through a furniture market—be it in Milan or High Point, North Carolina—and the answer is a clear, resounding yes. And it shows no sign of slowing down: Experts expect it to swell by billions of dollars between now and 2028. This activity can be a boon for designers, but it’s a lot to keep up with. Add in client calls, site visits, install days, administrative work (it’s tax season, after all!), and the countless other tasks that make up a designer’s agenda, and what hope would there ever be for browsing the newest outdoor trends? (Let alone maintaining a sane weekly schedule or striving for a four-day workweek….)
So let’s lighten your load, shall we? Here, we gladly present AD PRO’s 2023 Outdoor Forecast, a member-only trend report covering the most-asked-for features in gardens, yards, patios, and poolsides now. To compile this data, reporter Jesse Dorris turned to leading names in landscape—from Orchid Show darling Lily Kwong to Roman and Williams’ beloved collaborator Thomas Little—and gathered best practices for sustainable planting, notes on trending amenities (including our favorite, the outdoor kitchen), and more. We’ve also compiled a stylish spread of products that have captured the attention of AD editors.
After you’ve finished our outdoor forecast, be sure to check back on May 18, when we serve up our next trend report on AD’s most requested topic: the kitchen. Come hungry.
Until then,
Lila Allen, Senior Editor, AD PRO
In This Report
- 🏠 Let’s Take It Outside
The amenities your clients will be asking for, according to the pros—from bee-friendly gardens to plunge pools - 🧑🏽🍳 Spotlight: Outdoor Kitchens
Outdoor dining is now a year-round affair. Here’s how to design the ultimate space for cooking, serving, and celebrating outside - 🌿 Take It Slow
One of the most in demand landscape treatments, the meadow garden is a lesson in operating on Mother Nature’s timetable - ☀️ Spotlight: Working With the Weather
Landscape architects opine on designing for—and with—a climate in crisis - 🪑 13 Outdoor Products AD Editors Are Obsessing Over Now
The best of the best—from stylish outdoor fabrics to the latest weather-ready furnishings - 🎥 Watch the Workshop
David Godshall, Fernando Wong, and Josh Greene weigh in on the current state of landscape design and indoor-outdoor living
🏠 Let’s Take It Outside
From the time humans learned how to build homes, we’ve contemplated and complicated the borders between inside and outside. We’ve turned land around homes into manicured gardens and used modern technology to transform wild meadows into uniform lawns. Today, whatever borders remain have collapsed, a process hastened by a pandemic that kept many of us traveling no further than our own backyards. Interior designers and landscape architects shaped green patches into patios; patios into entertaining suites, complete with kitchens, wet bars, and screening areas. Pools became full-blown oases. Once-dorky lawn games became crazes (looking at you, pickleball). At a time when the world seemed to shrink, the grounds around our homes expanded until they could be most anything.